The Women of Ravensbrück – The Video Archive

Preservation and utilization of interviews with prisoners of the Ravensbrück concentration camp as an online-database

Project description

Between 1980 and 2008 Loretta Walz spoke with numerous female prisoners of the Ravensbrück concentration camp and recorded their interviews on videotape. She not only asked the survivors to recount their experiences at the camp, but also describe their lives prior to and following the war. In this way Walz collected more than 200 interviews with former prisoners from 23 countries. With over 750 hours of interviews on approx. 1,500 video cassettes, her collection is one of the largest of its kind in Germany, for which she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2006. These irreplaceable historic documents are in danger of being lost, as analogue video tape only has a limited lifespan.
This project digitalized a large portion of the collection, saved it to hard disk and created an online-database that can be used for purposes of political education, scientific study and by the general public. In order to optimally utilize the video interviews, they were historically and scientifically categorized and integrated into a presentation interface that provides a comprehensive search function and easier access to the material.

Artistic director: Loretta Walz
Writers: Karin Redlich, Knut Gerwers, Ulrich Rydzewski

Events

No upcoming events at present

Previous events

  • 24 September, 2010 : Opening session

    Friedenssaal, Lindenstr. 34a , Potsdam

Contact

Waidak media e.V.

Manfred von Richthofen Straße 105
12101 Berlin

www.waidak.de (external link, opens in a new window)